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UE_145912784-Participant
4-Participant
June 1, 2026
Question

Web Based Drawing Automation

  • June 1, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 126 views

Can we able to develop a web-based drawing automation application using Creo J-Link & Java Toolkit, where end users can upload the 3D data to generate drawings in web based application without opening or interacting with Creo? The drawing generation process should run in the background,  and users should be able to upload models and receive the generated drawings through the web application interface.

    4 replies

    D
    DavidBigelow17-Peridot
    17-Peridot
    June 1, 2026

    You might check out CREOSON it is FREE and Open Source - leverages JLINK for the interface.  The rest is pretty simple.

    Drawing Templates likely your best friend for this - and this will assume good standards for how you model your parts and dimension schemes.  You will not get 100% quality with any approach - but you can for sure shift from high grunt work to less grunt work.

    Dave

      U
      UE_145912784-ParticipantAuthor
      4-Participant
      June 3, 2026

      Thank you for the information. We have looked into this, and it's interesting to learn more about it.

      U
      UE_145912784-ParticipantAuthor
      4-Participant
      June 4, 2026

      ​@DavidBigelow 

      We are planning to develop an automation solution for generating 2D drawings from .STP, .IGES, .PRT, and .ASM files. The scope of the automation includes:

      • Automatic creation of drawing sheets using predefined templates.
      • Generation of all required drawing views, including base, projected, section, detail, auxiliary, and other standard views.
      • Automatic placement of dimensions, annotations, GD&T symbols, datum references, tolerances, and notes.
      • Export of the generated drawings to required formats such as PDF and DXF.

      Currently, we are evaluating the combination of Creo Design Essentials and the Creo Customization Toolkit license to implement this solution. However, the Creo Customization Toolkit license is relatively expensive.

      Could you please advise whether there are any alternative licensing options, dedicated toolkits, or APIs available that can support the above drawing automation requirements at a lower cost? Specifically, we would like to understand if any options would enable drawing automation without requiring the full Creo Customization Toolkit license. Or Can we able to do this automation by using the CREOSON Open-source library without any dependency on the CreoToolkit license

        D
        DavidBigelow17-Peridot
        17-Peridot
        June 4, 2026

        For sure you can do this FREE - no need for a special or expensive third party license.  The only requirement is that your models are dimensioned properly and your drawing templates are configured correctly.  This is easy as long as you have good standards and a repeatable process - everything just falls out cleanly.

        ✅ Automatic creation of drawing sheets using predefined templates.

        ✅ Generation of all required drawing views, including base, projected, section, detail, auxiliary, and other standard views.

        ✅ Automatic placement of dimensions, annotations, GD&T symbols, datum references, tolerances, and notes.

        ✅ Export of the generated drawings to required formats such as PDF and DXF.

        So yea - if everything is setup correctly in your creo models and drawing templates (even anticipated automation edge cases) - you would be fine with CREOSON for all the above - like 95% there.  Proper planning for this required - good modeling, dimensioning, and drawing standards.  If you don’t have a good process - expect pain, lost time, and significant expense.

        If you have random things - expect a high cost to transform to a desired state and sustain (you will be in “always tweak mode” as edge cases show up).

        If you are expecting to automate random things - you might look for a different (cheaper) solution that does not require hand-holding or to learn a new language to leverage: 

         

        Hope this helps.

        Dave

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        UE_145912784-ParticipantAuthor
        4-Participant
        June 5, 2026

        ​@DavidBigelow 

        That's good info.

        But still, is there any alternative other than CREOSON to the Creo Toolkit license?

        At present, we just want to perform to automate the 2D drawings from 3D Parts with the required dimensions, GD&T, tolerance, and notes. 

        To perform these activities, do we need to buy the entire Creo customization toolkit, or do we have another dedicated version of the toolkit for 2D Drawing automation only?

        Michael
        16-Pearl
        Michael16-Pearl
        16-Pearl
        June 4, 2026

        I very much doubt you’ll be able to do all this with creoson only. Would require lower level api capabilities found in object toolkit. I might suggest you look into sigmaxim and their automation tools. 

        Michael Bourque
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